Chapter One: When the Sun Returned, I Didn't

At 8:31 p.m. Spanish time, the moon swallowed the sun's last golden edge. Cheers rolled from the Ebro River to the rooftops of Zaragoza's old city. Thousands of eclipse glasses tilted upward like black scales. Lu Chenzhou stood on a temporary aerial-filming platform beside the Cathedral of the Savior, piloting his drone with one hand and holding down a wind-whipped blackout cloth with the other. On his monitor, the city went dark. Terracotta roofs, stone bridges, and the packed plaza sank into a blue-black dusk that was nothing like night. Twilight still ringed the horizon, but overhead hung a perfect void, crowned by silver fire.